Thomas decision sparks furious debate

Reporter: Greg Hoy

KERRY O'BRIEN: The quashing of a terrorism conviction against Jack Thomas, the first Australian to be sentenced under the Federal Government's new anti-terrorism legislation, has triggered a furious debate amongst lawyers, politicians and families even of victims of the Bali bombings. But as police and prosecutors consider pressing for new charges to be laid against Thomas, the former Melbourne taxi driver has found an unexpected ally today in the quest to safeguard his freedom. That's former South Australian deputy coroner Brian Deegan, whose son Josh was killed in the Bali bombings. While Jack Thomas lies low, making no public comment after enjoying his first weekend of freedom in months with his family, lawyers on both sides are not reluctant at all to speak. Greg Hoy reports.

GREG HOY, REPORTER: Caught in a controversy - the decision to release this man has caused a furore, dividing those who call it a victory for the justice system, and others who believe it's an embarrassment for law enforcement in Australia.

PETER FARIS QC, FORMER CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL CRIME AUTHORITY: I think it's a sad day for Australian justice. I think it's a victory for civil liberties over national security.

ROB STARRY, DEFENCE LAWYER: From our perspective, that the independence of the judiciary has been well and truly asserted in this case.

GREG HOY: There were gasps in Melbourne's crowded Supreme Court on Friday, when three judges of the Victorian Court of Appeal overturned a 5-year sentence imposed on terror suspect Jack Thomas. The judges ruled some Australian Federal Police evidence used to convict Thomas earlier this year was inadmissible, as it had been given under duress. The former chairman of the National Crime Authority - Peter Faris, QC.

PETER FARIS QC: I think he's very lucky, very, very, very lucky and as a matter of law he is not guilty, and he is an innocent man, even though he confessed to the crime.

ROB STARRY: There's been no true confession, because there's been no other evidence that supports any misconduct that he's engaged in. He's not, for instance, been convicted of any terrorism offence in terms of engaging in any act of violence or any threat of violence.

GREG HOY: A convert to Islam, Thomas - nicknamed 'Jihad Jack' - had admitted to training with the Taliban militia in Afghanistan, where he met Osama bin Laden, as detailed in an interview with 'Four Corners' in February.

'FOUR CORNERS' FOOTAGE: REPORTER: What was your impression of him and of how he was regarded?

JACK THOMAS: He was very polite and humble, and shy. He didn't like too many kisses. He didn't mind being hugged, but kisses he didn't like.

NEWS FOOTAGE: The Australian Federal Police have issued a statement defending their evidence, but saying they accept the court ruling. The statement said it would be inappropriate to comment any further. The Federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, was also unwilling to add comment.

GREG HOY: The Appeals Court judges agreed that Thomas was denied legal representation when interviewed by Australian police in Pakistan, and that before the interviews were conducted, he'd been interrogated for months by Pakistani and US authorities. During the trial, the Supreme Court heard that one US agent in particular had: "threatened to put Mr Thomas' testicles in a vice and rape his wife and put her breasts in a vice if the former taxi driver did not agree to cross the border into Afghanistan wearing a recording device and feed intelligence to US authorities. "

PETER FARIS QC: The issue here is the validity of the Australian interrogation and from what I've seen, the Australian police have behaved perfectly properly. So we're not talking about torture, we're talking about the general pressures that apply in situations overseas in the war against terror, and whether it should be made a bit more flexible.

GREG HOY: A view supported by families of the Bali bombing victims, with one prominent exception - the former Adelaide magistrate and deputy coroner, Brian Deegan, whose 22-year-old son Josh lost his life in the first Bali bombing.

BRIAN DEEGAN, FORMER SA MAGISTRATE: Well, justice has been served in this particular case and look, I pause to point out that I above most people no doubt, despise terrorism, despise the groups that it's alleged that this man had been associated with. But the decision is to be applauded for this reason. The rules were broken by the investigating officers, and Australia being a First World nation holds a first-class judiciary and it's my belief that unlike in many other countries, that has stood the test and come through.

GREG HOY: Prosecutors are considering seeking a retrial based on comments made by Jack Thomas in his interview with 'Four Corners'. Not surprisingly, there were no further public comments forthcoming from Jack Thomas or his family today. Though after his surprise support for the Court of Appeal's decision, Brian Deegan received an unexpected email from Jack Thomas's brother.

BRIAN DEEGAN: Basically, the email contained condolences towards myself and my family and that he, too, shared the sorrow for any persons who had become victims of terrorism, and to their family and friends. But it also indicated that he and other members of perhaps his family had also borne some grief as a result of the proceedings that had been brought against his brother.

GREG HOY: With the court's decision, the man they called 'Jihad Jack' is back on the streets of Melbourne, with opinion divided as to whether justice has been properly served.

PETER FARIS QC: Anyone who trains with Al Qaeda who's a devout Muslim and still believes in what they're doing who comes back to Australia has got to be a security risk. The security people will be looking at him all the time.

ROB STARRY: Now some commentators that say, for instance, we should use torture as a means of extracting confessions and I think once we descend to that, we then become a very unsavoury community in which we extract information and evidence in circumstances that should be viewed as unacceptable. We become a police state, and that's what we don't want to become.